When I was in high school, I wanted to be a scientist. I didn’t have any particular field in mind, but Tom Swift Jr and Tom Corbett were my ideal, so more physics/engineering than chemistry/biology.
As it turned out, I’m smart, but not that smart. It might have been possible, but it would have been incredibly difficult. Computers – mostly software but also older hardware – came easily to me. That’s where I ended up. And modern processors are nigh on impossible for me to understand.
I don’t think about this very often, but every now and again something comes up that reminds me. I wanted to discover octopole magnets with pseudo-chiral phonons! Not that exactly, of course, but that sort of thing.
I’m certainly not going to be able to do it, now. Even the trivial linear algebra required for quantum computing hurts my brain. Full on quantum differential equations are beyond my reach. I could probably understand the basics (the linear algebra is the differential equations, simplified), but I couldn’t do anything with it.
I take some pleasure in clapping from the sidelines. We can’t all be in the parade.
Can I get links to those two? Are they still available? Sort of.
Here’s Tom Swift Jr book 10: Tom Swift and his Ultrasonic Cycloplane. The series doesn’t seem to be linked together and it’s one used paperback.
Here’s the Tom Corbett Space Cadet collection. For 99 cents?!? Purchased. They’re probably awful; I read them in middle school, iirc. They probably haven’t aged well – although rockets are landing on their tails, now! I’m pretty sure Jethro is the engineer and Roger is the navigator. We’ll see how good my memory is.
As an added bonus, The Lensmen series is available – on KU no less. I’ve probably read that series at least eight times. I have the paperbacks (in a box in the garage waiting to be donated to something/one).
